Mouth organs include, in their simplest construction, a body with air-slots, which is typically made of plastic. Metallic voice plates, which have a plurality of voice reeds secured thereto, are affixed to both the upper and lower sides of the body. One of the voice plates includes the pressure reeds, while the other includes the suction reeds. The voice reeds must be tuned at least once. The sides of the voice plates which face away from the air-slot defining body are protected by a cover shell, typically made of thin sheet metal.
The above-described prior art mouth organ requires, a large number of manufacturing steps for each component and, in addition, considerable labor to assemble the instrument from the finished parts. There is a long-standing need for a mouth organ which is less expensive to manufacture than prior-art instruments of similar and which in particular requires less labor for both its manufacture and assembly.
Efforts to satisfy this long-standing need have been directed toward integration of the voice reeds and voice plate into a single entity. These efforts have not yet produced a high-quality, commercially viable solution, for some of the following reasons:
A. In the case of plastic voicing elements, the nonlinear elastic properties of many plastics alter the tonal qualities of the instrument. As a note becomes louder or softer, it may also become sharper or flatter. Serious musicians, accustomed to metallic reeds, find these characteristics undesirable. PA0 B. Tooling, whether it is in the form of stamping dies or in the form of injection molds, requires a relatively large initial investment in terms of time and money. This fact slows the product development cycle, particularly for small manufacturers. PA0 C. Flash (in the case of injection moldings and castings) and burrs (in the case of stampings) are undesirable physical results of the respective processes. The removal of flash or burrs requires some form of secondary labor, which is contrary to the need for reduced labor.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide an improved voicing element for a mouth organ which is inexpensive, which can be manufactured and assembled with minimal labor, and which has accurate pitch and tonal qualities under normal conditions of use, including different sound volumes.
A further object is to provide such a voicing element which is made from a conventional linear-elastic metal.
A further object is to provide such a voicing element which can be manufactured with a minimal tooling cost.
A further object is to provide such a voicing element which can be manufactured so as to maintain a high degree of dimensional control without requiring any subsequent effort to effect flash removal, burr removal, tuning, or the like.